Robotics
Definitions '''Robotics Overview "Robotics is shaping up to be the next transformative technology of our time. And robotics has a different set of essential qualities than the Internet. Robotics combines, arguably for the first time, the promiscuity of information with the capacity to do physical harm. Robots display increasingly emergent behavior, permitting the technology to accomplish both useful and unfortunate tasks in unexpected ways. And robots, more so than any technology in history, feel to us like social actors — a tendency so strong that soldiers sometimes jeopardize themselves to preserve the 'lives' of military robots in the field."Ryan Calo, Robotics and the Lessons of Cyberlaw, 103 Cal. L. Rev. (2015) (full-text). History "Real-world application of robots dates back to 1961, when George Devol's and Joseph Engelberger’s Unimate system was deployed at General Motors for handling of die-cast metal. Use of robots in the automation of physical tasks provides benefits such as quality, repeatability, and power and can enable the removal of humans from dangerous tasks. In their early days, robots were used predominantly in automotive manufacturing. The initial introduction of robots in the automotive industry helped to ensure consistent quality over time and a reduction in defects. "Since then, the field has seen tremendous technical progress. The early robot systems had high mechanical precision but were not programmable. They used a fixed sequence of actions to perform a task. By 1974, the first microprocessor-controlled robot was introduced. Today's robot utilizes different types of sensors, and some of them are directly programmed from human demonstration."Information Technology and the U.S. Workforce: Where Are We and Where Do We Go from Here?, at 40 (citation omitted). Synergistic technologies The field of robotics is multidisciplinary and advances in any number of scientific and engineering field could improve robot capabilities. Because robots are computer-controlled machines, advances in computer hardware and software are obviously synergistic. Advances in microprocessor speeds and abilities are directly applicable to improving the speeds and capabilities of robots. Some specific examples of key synergistic technologies follow: * Wireless communications technologies. Wireless technologies already enable robots to communicate with the outside world. Wireless technologies and infrastructure will continue to advance and thus enable an increase in robot functionality. * Sensor technologies (vision, chemical, infrared, sonic). Robots require a multitude of sensors to gather data in order to perform security functions. These sensors must work well together (sensor fusion) and must be cost-effective. * Advanced materials and electronics technologies. Advances in microprocessors (and other microelectronics), and also in advanced actuators (e.g. artificial muscles) will be necessary to improve the functionality and performance of robots, and especially to limit the overall size and complexity of advanced robots. * Low-cost high-performance energy and power systems. Robots currently have a severely limited range. For a security robot to operate effectively, it needs to be able to work for long periods without charging or re-fuelling. In addition, the charging or re-fuelling process must be a quick and convenient process. Totally new power systems will likely be required before robots can operate effectively for long periods of time. References See also * Agile robotics * Cloud robotics * Robot combat * Robotics and Automation Society * Robotics Institute * Service robotics Category:Technology Category:Robotics Category:Definition